Sunroom: Week 3

We’ve been working non stop over the past few weeks on this room, starting from the biggest & most boring jobs—like a new ceiling and insulation, lighting, wiring, painting, and flooring.

That’s all finally out of the way, and I’m thrilled to say that the room is starting to feel like the perfect loungy sunroom I’ve always wanted.

Last week I had just finished painting the ceiling and the tile was about to go in. On Monday, the tile installers came and gave us this gorgeousness:

It’s just like I had imagined.

If anyone is curious, this is the brand of tile:

We also installed a more modern simple white fan for some much needed circulation:

You’ll also notice that the curtain rods are no longer black, and you can hardly tell they are there (success!)

Next comes the fun part…

We spent most of our Thursday night building these Ikea Brimnes daybeds:

Oy.. not fun.

4 hours later….

But, oh… it was so worth it…

I wanted a pop of color in the bedding, so I found the perfect color pale aqua quilts (they match the ceiling!) from Home Goods, $40/ea:

Then I made a Target run and picked up almost $200 worth of pillows, sheet sets, a couple pillow covers and some other accessories…

I found this table on clearance and fell in love:

(PS, contrary to what everyone believes on Pinterest… this is and always was a side table, not a trash can! And it was purchased at Target which apparently no longer sells them)

Half off!

If you know me at all, you know this is not going to stay black. It’s currently in the spray chamber getting primered:

The plan is to paint it a deep turquoise blue. I found the perfect color in a spray can at Lowe’s (Valspar brand in Exotic Sea), but they were out of stock so I’ll have to run back for it tomorrow.

And these lanterns stole my heart…

No, they weren’t on sale (sigh), but for $20 for the pair… I couldn’t say no (dang you, Target).

Next, I stole some art from our bedroom…

And relocated it to one of the 2 empty walls in the sunroom:

On another note—this chair situation has been my biggest stress factor in this entire room project. I’ve been lobbying to replace it with a fun patterned slipper chair (or something just a bit more modern), but Brad *really* loves how comfortable it is and wants to keep it.

In an effort to compromise, I’ve been shopping around for a comfy arm chair that is more in line with the look I want… but dude, chairs are expensive. As in, over $500 for anything that would come close to what we need (we got the current chair on Craigslist for $40 in LA)

Anyway… considering I have to write a 20k check to Uncle Sam tomorrow, a new chair is out of the question. So tell me if I’ve completely lost my mind
here, but I’m going to attempt to slipcover it. Without a sewing machine or any knowledge of sewing… I’ll be using stitch witchery instead. Desperate times call for desperate measures. If you have any advice, please, I need all the help I can get.

Moving on…. here is the current state of our sunroom, 2 weeks before the grand finale:

Yes, it is as relaxing as it looks. The weather has been heavenly, and we’ve been keeping the windows open and just camping out in this room for the past few days, enjoying the warm sunshine and the breeze. Brad didn’t agree with my “beds as a couch” vision at first, but now I have to pull him out of there to come to bed.

The pillows are all mostly bare right now, but that will be fixed soon. I found an amazing shop on Etsy and I’m excited to share with you all the fun pillow patterns I’ve picked out.

Notice anything else new?

Yep.. it’s a coffee table. I built it a few hours ago.

It was honestly one of the easiest things I’ve ever built. Didn’t even need Brad’s help. I’ll post a tutorial soon.

Here is the Sunroom To-Do list before the April 28th Pool Party deadline…

Gorgeous! I want to come hang out in your sunroom! I'll bring the cocktails. I also am a huge fan of faux wood plank tiles. I hope to have a house one day where I can install them/have them installed. The whole room looks beautiful.

This room is turning out beautifully – can't wait to see your finishing touches. And also, I kind of like the beige chair and ottoman as is. I'm sure if you gussy it up with some accent pillows and maybe paint the legs a darker color it won't look as bland. It's all looking mighty comfy!

Okay, just got caught up from beginning to end with your blog, love it! I would like to hear a little more about your business. For the chair I recommend going to the Goodwill and getting some white colored sheets or whatever color you want to use to color them. You will need some flat ones for sure but could use some fitted for the cushion. I have never done this but came pretty close with an old sofa. You can dye them with fabric dye after washing and drying on sanitizing setting or hottest you can set both washer and dryer on, of course. Guess at the outside length and then fold to the inside and wrap the chair. If you lucked out and got like a king size sheet it would make it easier. The trick is to put PVC pipe or wooden dowels or something at the inside bottom around the cushion to keep the fabric from moving. If you use more than one sheet to wrap the outside just make sure the seams are not jumping out at you. Try the cheap DIY first. Slipcovers cost a fortune. Tablecloths might work good, too!

My fiance and I love the flooring in the sunroom. Thank you for sharing the type of tile… Did you have to special order it? I also love the floor in your bedroom. Was that your addition or did it come with the house?

I would, but I have such a black thumb. I couldn't even keep my air plants alive. Plus, Susie eats everything! My flower sticks in a vase will have to suffice (and I figure the open view filled with an abundance of trees/plants is enough!)

🙂 I have the same Target tables (love em!) and want to paint them teal or lime-y green. Actually, I had the idea before I saw yours, so how funny is that?! When I saw yours, I told my husband “Seeeeee — I just KNEW that would look awesome!”

How are the table tops holding up with the paint? Did you do any special prep? We use ours ALL the time as our end tables in the family room and I'm a little nervous about it.

(Also, I am mildly ticked off every time I see your teal table on pinterest as “turn a trash can upside down and use it as an end table. Face palm.)

The side of the bed is quite visible so there wasn't any issues. We considered cutting it but that would have left a visible jagged edge and the bed would be unusable in any other configuration. Now that we're in a new house and will likely separate the beds I'm very glad we left it intact!

Absolutely love your work! The colours in your sunroom are inspiring. Do you recall the colour on the wall (soft white-ish)? It looks great with “tropical mist” on the ceiling. PS your new house is coming along nicely! …enjoying the posts.Michelle

Love Love Love your style and designs! Just recently moved to Florida and purchased a home and have begun my own projects and looking at yours as inspiration and jealousy. One that's still left to do is painting. I love the color on that you have on the master bedroom wall (the pic of the borrowed art from your bedroom), a very light sea foam color. Any idea what the color/brand of paint that was? Is it the same color as the studio room from your previous posts?

Now that you’ve had the Brimnes daybeds for a while (and survived a move?!), how are they holding up? I’ve read that they’re flimsier compared to the other Ikea option (Hemnes), but contrary to most people, I like the look of this one better.

Unfortunately we had to disassemble them for the move but we didn’t have instructions for rebuilding and couldn’t figure out how to put one of them back together properly (not sure how that happened!) So one is still going strong and the other one isn’t perfect. But I would agree they are flimsier than the Hemnes line which uses real wood I believe (our Hemnes dresser is holding up better than the daybeds for sure).